Scleroderma and vasculitis specialist Alicia Rodriguez-Pla, MD, PhD, MPH has joined the University of Arizona Division of Rheumatology faculty.
Dr. Rodriguez-Pla sees patients at Banner - University Medical Center, South Campus located at 2800 E. Ajo Way, Suite 103, Tucson, Ariz., 85714, and at Banner - University Medicine North at 3838 N. Campbell Ave., Tucson, Ariz., 85719
She serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine in the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson. She earned her medical degree from the Universidad de Navarra in Spain, and went on to rheumatology training at the Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau and Hospital Malalties Reumatiques, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain). She then earned her Ph.D. degree from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, working in translational and epidemiological research on giant cell arteritis.
Her longstanding interest in vasculitis led her to pursue post-doctoral training in the U.S. From 2003 to 2007, as a visiting post-doctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Rodriguez-Pla gained further experience in translational research in vasculitis and had the opportunity to see many patients with vasculitis. During her last two years at Johns Hopkins, she was funded through a Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC)/Vasculitis Foundation (VF) fellowship. She also received a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) degree at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2007.
After practicing as a clinical rheumatologist in Spain, she returned to the U.S. at the end of 2008 and worked in lupus research at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research in Dallas. She has devoted the last five years to complete a clinical fellowship in rheumatology at Boston University and residency in internal medicine at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, MA.
She has authored several case reports and research papers, primarily related to autoimmune conditions.